


Shaking the Foundation

by AstroGirl



Category: Good Omens (TV)
Genre: Bad Guy POV, Gen, The Trials
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-02
Updated: 2020-05-03
Packaged: 2021-03-01 17:40:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 979
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23970964
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AstroGirl/pseuds/AstroGirl
Summary: Gabriel has faith.  Beelzebub has understanding.  Until, perhaps, they don't.  (Or: a small glimpse at Gabriel and Beelzebub's perspectives on the trials.)
Comments: 6
Kudos: 35
Collections: Genprompt Bingo Round 17





	1. Gabriel

**Author's Note:**

> Written for Gen Prompt Bingo, for the prompt "Standing Trial." Rated teen, pretty much just for swearing.

Gabriel is a creature of faith. _Obviously._ He's an archangel. It's part of the job description.

Faith in the Almighty, of course. After all, that's basically Heaven's mission statement. True, the failure of Armageddon to come off on schedule is a bit of a hiccup, and this whole confusion over the Great Plan vs. the Ineffable Plan will need some clearing up. But none of that changes Gabriel's belief in whichever plan it is. He just needs to clarify some of the action items, that's all.

Which he _will_ do. He knows he will, because he also has faith in himself. Which is basically the same thing as faith in God, anyway, isn't it? He's God's right-hand angel, and She would hardly have picked him for the job if he wasn't up to it. Definitely not since Lucifer proved to everybody how important it is to have someone trustworthy in the position, when he put them through all that ugly restructuring.

Now, faith in his underlings, that's a slightly different matter. He has that, sure, lots of it. But there are limits. The best manager in the universe – and he is, _literally_ , the best manager in the universe – can only work with the material he has. If this one turned out to be weak enough to be corrupted so easily by a demon, or by pleasures of the flesh – Maybe by pleasures of the flesh _with_ the demon? No, eww, he's not going to think about _that_ too hard – well, that's hardly Gabriel's fault.

Anyway, what's important isn't having faith in the people under you. It's having faith in your own ability to handle them. And that he _definitely_ has. He can get what's needed out of his people. Even if sometimes what's needed is for them to _fucking die_. And once that's done, they can put all this nonsense behind them and work on getting the Plan back on whatever track it's actually supposed to be on. No problem.

He's still in control. He knows exactly what needs to be done right now, and he's going to make sure it happens. He is absolutely, entirely confident.

Right up until the moment when he's not.

Gabriel hasn't felt fear since the beginning of the universe. Not even in the war. Because he _believed_. He knows everything is destined to come out right. God will make it happen. _Gabriel_ will make it happen. It's a given. 

There is an order to the universe. There is Good and there is Evil, there is Heaven and there is Hell, and there is the Plan behind it all. There are not _angels who spit hellfire_. There just _aren't_. That's not in the Plan _anywhere_. He knows that. He _knows_ it.

Just as surely as he knows there is Right, and that he is on the side of Right, and that no one who opposes the Right escapes punishment. _So how is it that they can't kill this fucking traitor?_

What does that mean?

It means things are so much worse than he thought. It means things are so much less certain. It means...

It means he wants Aziraphale _gone_. He wants him _out_. He wants never to look at him again, never to think about him again, never to have to acknowledge his existence, ever again.

Let Earth have him. Let the demon have him. Maybe that's fitting, anyway. 

It is a sin worthy of expulsion from Heaven to make an archangel doubt, even for a moment.


	2. Beelzebub

Beelzebub understands how the universe works.

There is an order to things, a hierarchy, and a Plan. It is Written.

Beelzebub understands the following things:

She understands that the Fallen are Fallen. Irredeemable. Their only chance to regain Heaven is to take it by force. They will have one opportunity to do that. It has been promised to them. It is _Written_.

She understands that until that time, the only way to find Hell, with all its dankness and tedium and irritation, remotely bearable is to occupy a position as near as possible to the bottom of its inverted organizational pyramid. Beelzebub has fought very hard to secure her own place in that power structure, second only to Satan himself. And she knows that in order to maintain that structure, its power must be exercised. The natural inclination of demons towards chaos and rebellion must be harnessed when useful, and curtailed when it becomes a threat.

So, of course the traitor Crowley has to die. He has to die publicly, appropriately, and horribly, as an example to the others.

He _must_. It is part of the Plan, part of the proper order of things. On that, Heaven and Hell can entirely agree.

He must. So what does it mean that he _doesn't_? That he lies there, content, in a bath full of holy water, and wrinkles his nose, and asks for towels, and rubber ducks, and to be left alone forever?

Demons cannot bear that much holiness. It is simply not possible. And Crowley is a demon. 

Beelzebub understands the universe. She understands Heaven and Hell, order and chaos, power and subjugation. But she can make no sense of this at all.

If six thousand years on Earth can remove the damnation from a demon, if six thousand years of association with an angel can, or if something else can, some other trick, some truth Beelzebub does not know and cannot fathom...

What cannot be understood is dangerous. What cannot be controlled is dangerous. What can neither be understood nor controlled needs to get away from her _right fucking now_.

All right. If what the traitors want is to be left alone, then fine. She will leave them alone. She will take the time they've bought for her with their meddling, and she will use it. 

Clearly, it's time to think about making a different Plan.


End file.
